Damot

This article is about the medieval kingdom along the Abay River. For the ancient kingdom along the Red Sea coast, see Dʿmt. For the Somali settlement in the Ogaden, see Danot (woreda).

Damot was a medieval kingdom in what is now Ethiopia, and tributary to the Ethiopian Empire. Originally located south of the Abay and west of the Muger River,^[1] under the pressure of Oromo attacks the rulers were forced to resettle north of the Abay in southern Gojjam between 1574 and 1606.^[2]

Its earliest mention is in the Gadla or hagiography of the 13th century Saint Tekle Haymanot, which mentions Damot under a governor named Motalame, who had his palace at a place called Malbarde, and whose territory extended east beyond the Muger as far as the Jamma.^[1] The same name is given to the ruler of Damot in the reign of Emperor Amda Seyon.^[3]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} G.W.B. Huntingford, Historical Geography of Ethiopia from the first century AD to 1704 (London: British Academy, 1989), p. 69
2. ^ The dates for this movement are discussed by Huntingford in his Historical Geography, at pp. 143f
3. ^ Huntingford, Historical Geography, pp. 78f